You Can't Hide Forever
by PurplePoctopus
Summary: Jo Harvelle was never sure when Bela Talbot would show up, but she did know that when she did, it was never boring. Never boring at all.


Joanna Beth was never sure just when she'd crop up. She had tried tracking her through the years, but found it incredibly hard to track someone who didn't want to be found. Then again, Jo didn't ever want to be found either, and somehow she always was. Ever since that day at the Roadhouse all those years ago, Jo found herself in a game of chance and waiting. There was never any rhyme or reason for the things that the thief did, but Jo knew that whenever she turned up, she could expect her entire world to turn upside down. It used to be a system, wipe down tables, turn down advances, pour drinks, laugh with her mother. There was never anything complicated in Jo's life, and that was the way that she liked it.

_"Joanna, hold still."____Bela cooed as she braided the blonde's hair with long, delicate fingers. It was a simple gesture, but it was something she had never done before, especially not in cotton shorts in a tank top, with a bottle of booze shared between them. She felt like she was back in high school, if she had ever had a true high school experience. She soon gave up on trying to fuss with Jo's hair, since the hunter was too preoccupied with taking sips from the bottle to stay still for Bela, and began massaging her shoulders, her ankle resting on Jo's thigh. _

_ Jo shivered a bit and pulled away, biting her lip. "Bel… I don't… I'm not a… I like _guys_, Bela." Jo protested while looking down at her hands. A smirk appeared on Bela's lips, and she dipped her head down to Jo's ear, chuckling lightly. _

_ "I wasn't even thinking about it until you brought it up." She whispered, then opened her mouth to say something else, but Jo was already there, hovering so close that one of them just had to close the gap._

She was in Paris, Texas the next time she showed up, as always, wearing a skirt so tight and short that almost nothing was hidden, batting her eyes at males and females alike just to draw them close enough so that she could pick their pockets. Her incredibly high Jimmy Choos were clicking on the floor of the bar that Jo was working in, looking out-of-place compared to all the hunters wearing days-old plaid while sucking down their beers. The thief slid on one of the bar stools, right in front of Jo, and reached over the counter to grab a cherry from a bowl. She swirled her tongue around it with her eyes grinning, catlike and as green as ever, then bit it off slowly.

Jo swallowed nervously, feeling a pang in her chest from the other woman's presence, and nearly fell to the floor when Bela placed her tongue-tied cherry stem on one of the bar napkins. She hadn't even said a word yet, and Jo's knees had already turned to jelly.

"Now, now, Joanna. Are you trying to greet me, or catch flies?" Bela asked with a smile, hopping down off of the stool to walk around the counter and fix herself a drink. Jo tried to glare, maybe she'd scare the thief back into her place, but Bela didn't seem to notice as she fixed herself some sort of complicated cocktail thrown into a martini shaker. "You miss me?" She continued while shaking her drink a few times.

"M…Miss? Why would I miss you, Bela?" Jo stammered as Bela put down the shaker and reached across Jo's chest to grab a glass, the thief's breath hot on her neck. "My life doesn't revolve around whenever you decide to show up."

"No, of course not." She replied, slinking back around the bar, drink in hand, before sliding back down on the barstool. "Because I'm terribly unpredictable. I'm more… Tigris and Euphrates than… Indus. But, that's what you love about me, isn't it, Joanna dear?" It always pissed Jo off how Bela used her full name for everything, sometimes even calling her 'Joanna Beth' like she was her mother and had the goddamn right to. Sometimes, Jo wanted to just punch her in the face and walk away, but she was too emotionally invested to, and that was what drove Jo the craziest.

Jo didn't respond, instead she clenched her jaw and went back to drying glasses, trying her hardest to ignore Bela and her stupid sexy face, and her stupid sexy body, and her stupid sexy accent. Bela shrugged, finishing her drink, then walked out of the bar again, just as quickly as she had come in. "Who was that?" Todd, another bartender, asked Jo, who was still flustered and blushing. She dropped the glass in her hands when she jumped from surprise, but didn't dive to catch it like Todd did. Despite his best effort, the glass still crashed to the floor, and Jo couldn't do anything but swear and run a hand through her hair.

"She was no one. Not anymore."


End file.
